Teen tells police he idolized Columbine gunman

Thursday, June 26, 2014 11:53 AM

WASECA, Minn. (AP) -- A Minnesota teenager accused of planning to
massacre his family and high school classmates mocked the attacks on the
Boston Marathon and Sandy Hook Elementary School as "pretty lame" and
"pathetic" and said he idolized one of the Columbine gunmen, according
to recordings of his police interrogation.

The 17-year-old was arrested in April after authorities said they
found him with bomb-making materials in a storage locker at his school
in Waseca, 70 miles south of Minneapolis.

In the two recordings released Tuesday, the teen calmly described his
plan to "dispose of" his family, set a fire as a diversion and use
explosives and guns to attack his school. He said he thought it would be
"fun" and that he was following his idol, Eric Harris, who alongside
Dylan Klebold slaughtered 13 people and injured 26 more before
committing suicide at Columbine High School in 1999.

The teen told police he was not targeting anyone specific at the school.

"I would have taken anyone out, I didn't care," he told detectives.
He insisted, though, that he had only wanted to kill older students
because he did not want to be remembered in the same way as Sandy Hook
shooter Adam Lanza, who killed 20 elementary school children in his
December 2012 attack.

"That's just pathetic," he said. "Have some dignity."

He told officers he planned to use two pressure cooker bombs with
explosives three times more powerful than the ones used in the 2013
Boston Marathon attack, according to the recordings.

"I thought three casualties was pretty lame," he said.

He planned to put one pressure cooker inside a recycling bin and
detonate it during lunch when lots of students would be around. He would
detonate a second bomb when students were running away, he told
investigators. Then he would throw Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs, and
"when the SWAT comes I would destroy myself," he said.

The teen said he had been planning the attack for more than a year
and jotted it down in a notebook that he kept locked in his room.

However, his father told reporters last week that he does not believe
his son would have carried out the plan and that there were no signs
the teen was troubled.

The teen was charged with four counts of attempted murder, two counts
of first-degree damage to property and six counts of possession of a
bomb by someone under 18. The Associated Press generally does not
identify juveniles accused of crimes. Prosecutors are trying to have the
case moved to adult court.